Property owners in the Boston section of Elizabeth Township said they've been looking at -- and smelling -- an eyesore of uncollected garbage since before Christmas.

"I noticed there are quite a few houses they haven't collected from. They've probably only collected a third of the garbage in Boston," said resident Richard Jones.

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Jones told Channel 4 Action News' Jim Parsons his home is one of the locations where the trash wasn't picked up last week.

He said Clairton-based Nickolich Sanitation, which handles garbage collection in Elizabeth, told him he didn't pay his quarterly bill on time, but later admitted the company had made a mistake.

"They told me we had paid our garbage bill and they were sorry, and they would send someone out today. We've heard that story a couple of times -- once from the garbage people and once from the commissioner, Larry Vota. He said they would be out today, and lo and behold, still here."

Parsons attempted to ask Vota why residents' trash wasn't being picked up, but Vota would only say that the board of directors was expected to discuss the issue at a meeting on Monday night.

In many communities, the trash collection bill comes from the city, township or borough.

If someone doesn't pay, a lien is put against the property, but the trash still gets collected.

But in Elizabeth, things don't work that way.

Nickolich Sanitation owner Nick Nickolich said he's just adhering to the way the contract was set up.

"When we've been shutting the people off that didn't pay --- that's the way other bigger companies were doing it. We didn't just come out of this with the clear blue sky," said Nick Nickolich, owner of Nickolich Sanitation.